Reddoch remembered for his art, stories

Arts and Entertainment Reporter

Friends of Marshall Reddoch are remembering him this week as a talented painter, a great storyteller and a master entertainer who loved to cook.

Reddoch, 61, died Saturday. Services were held Wednesday at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church.

Reddoch moved to Athens eight years ago from Atlanta, according to his cousin, Roger Winston.

Winston was 10 years older than Reddoch, so he missed much of his cousin’s youth. But when he moved to Athens, they evolved into good friends.

“We had a conversation every morning,” he said. “We were very close.”

Winston, who said he was Reddoch’s only living relative, remembers Reddoch as “the guy that wanted to make a difference.”

Winston said Reddoch, who had diabetes, watched his health deteriorate in the last several months. Following his second leg amputation this summer, Reddoch suffered a heart attack two weeks prior to his death. Winston spent much of that time with Reddoch.

On Tuesday afternoon, Winston stopped by Artini’s to pick up the last Reddoch painting the store had in stock. Reddoch had left a list of friends who were to receive his art, and Winston had been put in charge of delivering the works to their homes.

Reddoch’s friend and art compatriot, Kate Cook, owner of Artini’s, remembers the day the “colorful” man walked into the Pulaski Street art bar.

“For those who were close to him ... he was the quintessential charming old man” known for his love of good food, cigars and drink, Cook said.

People responded well to his art work, she said. Reddoch was known for vivid, layered and detailed floral paintings, a handful of which were sold out of Artini’s.

“A lot of work went into his pieces,” she said.

Cook and Reddoch shared the spotlight in an Artini’s art show last April. Cook used the words “beautiful” and “gorgeous” to describe Reddoch’s flower paintings.

But Reddoch was also known for the stories he told, many about his own experiences having lived in many countries and worked in many trades.

In a 2010 feature story in the Athens Banner-Herald, Reddoch noted that though he was 58 at the time, he believed his best moments were still ahead of him.

“You get older, and you think that those golden rings that were once in your grasp have disappeared,” he said in an interview. “But I look into my horizon and I see those golden rings again.”

Scott Medine, a deacon at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, met Reddoch a few years ago when the artist was entering the Catholic church.

As Reddoch’s health declined and he couldn’t attend mass, Medine visited Reddoch at his home.

“I would bring him holy communion on Sundays, but with Marshall, you couldn’t just go to his house,” Medine said.

What could’ve been a 15-minute visit turned into a four- or five-hour-long eating and drinking session.

Reddoch made all his meals “on the fly,” Medine said. But they were top quality. Medine’s last meal with Reddoch included rice, bok choy, pork and garlic.

When Medine first met Reddoch, “He was worried about the state of his soul. Like most people, he had regrets.”

Medine said Reddoch felt remorse about how he’d spent his life, especially as his vices — rich food, cigars, alcohol — didn’t help his health.

Reddoch was a “deeply spiritual man his whole life” whose personality could turn you on or off, Medine said.

“When you are creative ... you view life differently than other people,” Medine said. “Marshall had that third eye.”

Medine agreed with the Banner-Herald’s 2010 description of Reddoch as a renaissance man.

“That was pretty much him,” he said. “You had to talk to a lot of people to get a complete picture of who he was.”

Following Reddoch’s heart attack, he was put on dialysis to keep him alive. Reddoch checked with his priest, Medine said, to make sure that by stopping dialysis he wasn’t doing anything immoral.

In the end, Medine’s advice: “You’ve got to start forgiving yourself. You need to let go.”

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